Criminal Heart
by failuretoact
Summary: An ordinary, heartbroken boy. But, in reality, not so normal at all. An old grudge, an older enemy, and new allies. Will Roxas manage to overcome the adversity? Or will he fail, and be left for dead by those that drove his family from their home? AU. Pairings as yet undetermined. Rated for violence and language, not lemons.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, inspiration for this hit me a couple weeks ago, and I've spent most of my freewriting time working on it. Sorry for the slow updates, I handwrite all of my stories first, then type them. I'm a lazy typist, and I've not gotten the gumption to type this until just recently. Yes, it's out of universe. Don't like, don't read.**

**Credit for my picture goes to Sardiini on DeviantArt.**

**I don't own Kingdom Hearts.**

Criminal Heart

Chapter 1

* * *

S

'It's been a year since she hurt Roxas. I've been doing all I can, but he still refuses to cheer up. Not me, not Kai, not Dad… I've almost lost hope. But I can't give up. This is big brother. I can't fail.'

Sora closed his journal with a snap. With a pang, Sora recalled his brother's reaction to seeing his journal, and his incessant teasing about his "diary." In a way, it was, but that was beside the point. Roxas, the cheerful, teasing and, most importantly, the big brother, had been gone for a long time. Sora had thought that he would hate that girl, but he couldn't hold onto his anger like that. He still hadn't completely forgiven her, but he couldn't hate. It wasn't in his nature.

Sora rolled over and turned off his light. Tomorrow is going to suck, and he needs his sleep.

Sora awoke the next day in the same manner that he had for nearly the entirety of the last school year, with Roxas chucking his clothes for the day onto his face.

"Get up, you lazy shit. We've got school today."

Sora groaned. "I know, I know."

Junior year. Sora had been looking forward to it for a whole year, but now that it was here, he wasn't so ready for it. Especially the getting up part of it.

"And I'm driving." Sora was actually quite relieved at this, as we was a very reckless driver himself, and had destroyed multiple cars already. But he was one to take advantage of the situation.

"Fine, but you're buying lunch!"

* * *

X

Xion awoke to the high-pitched squealing of her once-best-friend-now-adopted-sister.

"Come on, come on, come on! Get up! It's your first day, and you've got to make a good impression on everyone!"

Xion groaned. She was NOT as excited as Kairi about her first day at her new school.

"COME ON; get up so we can pick out your outfit!" This earned another, even louder groan. Xion HATED picking clothes for herself. All she liked to wear was black, black, and more black. Maybe some occasional blue too.

Xion reluctantly drug herself out of bed.

"I'm taking a shower."

"Not until we pick what you're wearing!"

Xion sighed exasperatedly. "Just pick it out for me; you're better at that kind of thing anyway." She turned and walked out of the room before Kairi could get in another word of protest. Kairi might be a Junior, but she still had the maturity level of a little kid.

Xion came out of the shower feeling much better. A nice hot shower always woke her up. Upon entering her room, she had a bundle of clothes shoved at her by Kairi.

"Here, this is the best I could do with so little time."

Xion put on the clothes and admitted, to herself anyway, that Kairi did have excellent fashion sense. She had picked out a nice black Tee with a blue graphic that matched her eyes perfectly. She'd also pulled out some of Xion's black skinny jeans. She had on black tennis shoes with some white laces, to counteract just a little of the overall "look, you can't see me" vibe she was exuding.

Xion fixed her hair into her signature raven-style look and applied some light makeup. Satisfied with her appearance, she went downstairs to get some breakfast.

She grabbed the Cheerios from the cabinet and poured herself a bowl. As she ate, she heard a lot of noise coming from the general direction of Kairi's room. After she finished, she rinsed out her bowl and went to check on Kairi. She found her standing, satisfied, in the middle of a completely wrecked room. She was FINALLY fully clothed, and had chosen a lavender theme for her clothes, to bring out her eyes.

"Come on, Kai. We'll be late at this rate."

"I know…"

Kairi grabbed a couple of pop-tarts on the way out to the car.

"Today's gonna be great!"

* * *

R

If it were up to Roxas, he would have gone straight to class without bothering with Kairi. But Sora was right, there would be hell to pay if he tried that. So he reluctantly drug himself to their usual meeting spot, the lone willow tree in the little forest that was their school courtyard. Kairi was already there, damn it. Her constant hyperactive bounciness drove him nuts.

Once she saw Roxas and Sora, she held out her hands to the both of them.

"Schedules."

They gave her their schedules, knowing it was worthless to protest or complain. Kairi stacked them neatly, then called out, "Xion, I need your schedule!"

Roxas was momentarily confused, before he saw a black-haired girl hovering near the willow yell out a defiant, "No!"

Sora chuckled. Even Roxas raised an eyebrow. Kairi marched over to the girl, snatched her schedule away, and drug her over to the brothers.

"Xion, these are my friends, Roxas and Sora. They'll be nice to you, WON'T THEY?" She said the last bit quite menacingly.

Sora chuckled and gave a mock salute. "Yes, ma'am, whatever you say."

Kairi turned to glare at Roxas. He rolled his eyes.

"Sure, whatever…"

Kairi started to examine their schedules. After she'd looked over them all, she passed them back out.

"Roxas, I—" Roxas knew what was coming, and tried to hastily extricate himself from the situation. Unfortunately, Kairi caught on, and snagged him by his shirt sleeve. "—want you to help Xion get around school for a week or so, K?"

He tried to shake her off of his sleeve, but her grip was like iron.

"Ok, fine. Just next time, let Sora show the new kid around."

As Sora and Kairi departed for their classes, Roxas turned to Xion. "Let me see your schedule."

She clutched it close to herself. "Why?"

Roxas sighed. He didn't want to have to deal with this for ten minutes, let alone an entire week or more. "So I can know where I'm taking you ahead of time."

She gingerly handed him her schedule. As they walked, he compared hers to his, and saw why Kairi had stuck him with her. Their schedules were identical. Chemistry, Advanced World Geography, Computer II, Physics, Algebra III, and Art. Same classes, same order. Roxas was actually relieved. He wasn't going to have to be late for… er… Xion, wasn't it?

Roxas handed Xion her schedule back.

She looked at him questioningly. "Well?"

He shrugged. "Our schedules are identical. You'll just have to deal with me through all of our classes."

By this time they had gotten to the Chemistry lab.

"I'd suggest you work with me today, seeing as no one knows you."

The chemistry teacher was an older man with lemon-yellow hair, and a chopstick (or was it a very long toothpick? Roxas had never figured it out) in his mouth.

"Before we start our first lab today, I need y'all to split into groups of three."

Roxas face palmed. He knew who the third member of the group would be.

To his deepest regret, he was right. "Roxy!" Roxas barely managed to avoid a full speed tackle-hug.

"Now that wasn't very nice."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Get over it, Dem."

Demyx pulled himself to his feet. In doing so, he noticed Xion. "Hey, I don't recognize you! You must be the new girl Kairi was talking about. My name's Demyx!"

"Um… my name's Xion…"

Demyx hugged her. "Good to meet you, Xion!"

Xion attempted to fight her way out of the hug, but Roxas knew it was useless. Demyx's had a lot of practice giving unwilling people hugs.

He finally let go. "I'm sure we'll be the best of friends."

Xion looked around the room frantically, before Roxas stopped her by putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Nobody noticed. It's not unusual for Demyx to make a scene in every class. It's just in his nature to be overly buoyant."

She looked horrified. "We don't have every class with him, do we?"

"God, no. This is the only accelerated class that he takes."

This was the only class where Roxas didn't have to do any work, because Demyx was more than happy to do everything in that day's lab.

Figuring that he should at least TRY to make some small talk, Roxas glanced at Xion.

"So where're you from?"

"Los Angeles…"

Roxas nodded. It wasn't that unusual. He himself was born in LA, but he had moved to Vegas about a year before he started kindergarten.

"Why move now?"

Xion looked a little hesitant to discuss it.

"Kairi's family adopted me…"

This was news to Roxas. He had known that Kairi had lots of friends in LA, but he hadn't heard about an adoption.

"I'd console you about the loss of your family, but I bet you're sick of hearing it."

She looked him in the eyes. "How would you know that?"

Roxas held her gaze. "Personal experience."

"What do you mean?"

It was a touchy subject for Roxas. "Mom left us a year or so before we moved here. I don't know if she died or just left, because Dad refuses to talk about it."

She nodded and looked back down. "Then you would know the feeling…"

They spent the rest of the class in an awkward silence, broken only by Demyx's random outbursts.

* * *

X

Though Roxas was dead depressing, Xion had to admit that he was a genius. All through Computer, Physics, and Geography he was the teachers' popular student to call on. His heart didn't really seem in the lessons, though. Why is he so depressed? She didn't recall Kairi telling her that one of the Hikari brothers was so far down in the dumps.

Upon entering the Algebra classroom, she could only make one assumption: "Oh, great. We've got a hyperactive teacher." The algebra classroom was very brightly painted, with lots of posters and drawings all over the walls. She also noticed that the classroom was virtually empty. Her, Roxas, a blonde haired boy, and a brown haired girl, and that was it.

She decided to sit next to Roxas, who, for once, plopped himself at the front of the row. Moments later, she found out why. A black haired girl that couldn't be much older than 22 came bouncing into the room.

"Hey guys! I hope you had a good summer and I hope that we'll work very well together and I don't know you what's your name?" All this was said in one breath, with the last bit directed at Xion.

Xion, rather than glower at the bouncing teacher as she would Kairi, decided to grin hugely. "I'm Xion, good to meet you!"

Yuffie beamed. "I think we'll get along just fine." She shot a glance at Roxas. "Friend of yours?" Roxas gave a small smile and nodded. Xion nearly did a double take. A SMILE? That was the first emotion she'd seen from him all day.

Yuffie's methods of teaching reflected her personality; they were very simple (as Algebra goes, anyway). She was also very bouncy and cheerful, regardless of whether you caught on immediately or not.

Upon dismissal, Yuffie held Xion back.

"Xion, I need to talk to you."

Yuffie all but shoved Roxas out the door, and closed it behind him, then shot around to look at Xion.

"I know that, regardless of how hard he tries to hide it during my class, that Roxas is really depressed. He's been toting you around all day, so I'm sure you've figured that out."

She didn't know what Yuffie was getting at. "Yeah…"

"Well, Roxas is one of those guys that likes to feel needed… which, as you should know, is uncommon."

"And…?"

Yuffie sighed exasperatedly. "He'd never admit it, not even to himself, but I'm sure he's enjoying toting you around. So, if you wouldn't mind, would you mind letting him show you around for a while longer?"

Xion sighed. Yuffie rolled her eyes at her. "I know he can be a pain, but he's not that bad. Besides, you'll really like Roxas once he's cheered up…"

"How would you know that?"

Yuffie blushed. "Call me a cougar if you want, but I had a bit of a crush on him until he got all… depressed."

"Why is he depressed anyway?"

"It's not my place to say." She got up. "Now, I'm sure you're very eager to get out of here, and I won't deny Roxas the chance to walk you around."

She opened the door. "See you tomorrow!"

Xion and Roxas walked down the hallway, but Yuffie got in one last comment. "And remember what I said."

Xion sighed. This is gonna be an ordeal…

Her last class, art, thankfully passed without major incident.

Until the part where she had to leave. Where Kai had parked the car that morning was now just an empty space. Xion pulled out her phone and called her.

"Kai…"

"Yes?"

"Why did you go and leave me here all by myself?"

"Er… I forgot about you?"

"Well, how am I supposed to get home?"

"Why don't you have Roxas bring you home?"

Xion sighed. "Sure, send me home with the depressed kid…"

"He's not THAT bad…"

"Fine, whatever."

"He should be at basketball practice right now. You'll have to wait till he's finished."

"Ok." Xion ended the call and walked to the gym. Sure enough, Roxas was in practice. Xion realized that, while he did very little friend-wise, off of the court, everyone on the floor seemed to be cool with him. Except for this one silver-haired dude, who seemed to very cold to Roxas. Roxas also reciprocated this coldness, and they ignored each other on the whole if they could.

Another thing that she noticed was that Roxas was very, VERY athletic. He was by far the fastest on the floor, and probably jumped highest too.

Xion didn't have time to form more advanced conclusions before the practice ended. Roxas trotted over to her.

"Why're you still here?" He wasn't unfriendly. He just seemed puzzled as to why she had remained at school.

Xion almost giggled. "Kairi stranded me here."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me." He grabbed his stuff from next to the door and pulled out his keys. "Need a ride?"

Xion was in awe. He seemed like a normal person right now… what was up? She smiled at him anyway. "Yeah, thanks."

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Thanks?" He chuckled. "Regardless of how much you look like Kairi, your temperament couldn't be much more different."

Roxas threw his bags into the bed of an old El Camino, unlocked her door, opened it for her, closed it behind her, and THEN got behind the wheel. Xion was amazed. What a 180 from just hours ago!

Xion was still curious about Roxas's attitude towards that silver-haired kid.

"Hey, Roxas…"

"Yeah?" He seemed completely normal.

"What was with that silver-haired kid?"

Xion could tell that this was a touchy subject for him, as he badly stifled a glare that had probably been meant for her. "Why?"

"Well, it looked like you two avoided each other during your practice…"

Roxas had degenerated rapidly. "You'll find out soon enough… just don't let him get to you… because if you're my friend, he'll try his hardest to."

Regardless of Xion's attempts at starting a fresh conversation, Roxas was silent the rest of the short drive home.

As she got out, Roxas gave a casual, two fingered salute. "See you later."

She waved back. "Later!"

He drove off…

* * *

R

Roxas was glad that he hadn't had to explain to Xion his situation with Riku. It would be better, in the long run, for her to see and understand how deep the enmity between them ran first.

Roxas pulled into his house's massive garage.

He heard his father's incredibly deep, but not overly loud, voice. "So how was your day?"

He raised an eyebrow. It was unusual for his dad to be home so early.

"The Uchida's adopted a kid."

His father nodded. "I seem to recall hearing of that. Xion, I believe…?"

Roxas nodded. "That's right."

His dad went to the door. "I've got business to attend to tonight, so you're in charge. Make sure Sora doesn't eat all of the food, or wreck the house."

"Gotcha."

Roxas knew that it was unlikely that he would be watching out for just Sora.

Even knowing that it was a probably a bad idea, Roxas called Sora. Thankfully, he picked up.

"Yo, sup?"

"Sora, dad's gonna be gone, and—"

"Party?"

Roxas face palmed. He was NOT going to take responsibility for a bunch of drunk teens. "No party. At most, one or two people over."

Roxas knew who Sora was guaranteed to bring. "Ok, how about Kai and… um… Xion!"

Roxas knew that Sora was going to try to bargain to get more people over.

"Ok, but that's it. No one else.

"What! No way!"

Roxas sighed. "I'm not bargaining, Sora." He hung up. Keeping an eye on Kairi was gonna be a pain…

* * *

S

Sora couldn't believe it. Dad was away, and they were only having two people over. Two! That's it! Still, he remembered, two was better than none.

The two sisters took the invitation differently. Kairi just grabbed her bag that she kept for this kind of situation, and she was ready to go. Xion, meanwhile, grumbled and went to grab a few clothes and other essential items.

Sora drove them to his house and (somehow) managed not to wreck the car. Upon entering his house, he found Roxas, as per the norm, attached to his video games. Today, it was GTA: San Andreas. He was tempted to turn off the games, but knew Roxas would probably flip his shit and trash Sora's room later.

Xion was much braver. She plopped her stuff down next to the couch, snatched the controller out of Roxas's hands, and started to play herself. Sora wished he had a camera at this point, as Roxas looked utterly dumbfounded. Then, he seemed to be debating whether to snatch the controller back, or leave Xion to it. In a moment of decisiveness, he got up and snatched the controller back. Xion was the one who had the "DAFUQ?" look on her face now. Sora decided to leave. He did NOT want to be in the room when they started to fight over video game privileges.

Sora came back into the room with a big bowl of popcorn. Kairi had settled into one of the recliners in the room, and was watching Xion and Roxas play Call of Duty. Unlike normal (where Roxas destroyed everybody single-handedly) they were reasonably close in terms of skill. Match after match, Sora noticed that, while Xion would usually get an early lead, Roxas would later catch up and beat her. After a couple of hours of this pattern, with very little non-video game small talk between the four, Kairi got up and turned off the system and the TV.

"That's enough video games for one night.

Roxas had yet to move. He WAS, however, shooting death glares in Kairi's direction.

Sora stood up, too. "Then what're we gonna do?"

Kairi didn't seem to have thought this far ahead. "Uh… movies?"

Sora had another idea. "Skate Park."

"No way, how about…"

And so it went for a few minutes. Xion didn't participate, because she was new in town, and Roxas didn't give many ideas, because he was… well… Roxas. But finally, he did come up with a good idea.

"Uh… how about the clock tower?"

Sora and Kairi both stopped talking midsentence. Roxas had refused to go to the clock tower for the past year, because that was where he poured out his heart to… her. Back when he was still normal.

The clock tower used to be routine for them. Go get some ice cream, go watch the sunset. But they weren't going to deny Roxas a chance at normality.

"Sounds good to me."

Kairi agreed. "I think so, too.

Xion raised her hand. "Just one question."

Sora nodded. "Yeah?"

"Where're we going?"

**THREE HOURS! Three hours of typing! And I already had it written! Ugh. Now my hands hurt.**

**Sorry about the horrible updating, I'm a lazy typist. I have quite a bit of material for each story, but I'm too lazy to transfer it from the page to the computer.**

**I'll try to update this one AT LEAST bimonthly. As for When Worlds Collide, I'm gonna get to work on posting what I already have written for it.**

**Review, please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Yoness! I finally got my data limit reset! So now I can post all of my material that I've typed.**

**I don't own Kingdom Hearts.**

Criminal Heart

Chapter 2

* * *

X

Xion woke up in a very fluffy, comfortable bed. She took in her surroundings. Whose room was she in? She looked at the clock. 7:30…? That's pretty early. She tiptoed downstairs to find Roxas making pancakes. An older man, maybe about 40, was sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper and sipping his cup of coffee. He looked up the moment she entered the room, and stood up.

"So you must be Xion. I'm Roxas and Sora's father. It's good to meet you." He extended his hand.

Xion shook it. "It's good to meet you, sir."

The man seemed amused. "Sir? How formal." He looked back at Roxas. "You could learn a thing or two from her." He was very cool and quiet, but was easily able to make himself heard. She got in a better look at him. He was very imposing, with tanned skin, yellow eyes, and long, silver hair.

"Keep dreaming." Mr. Hikari chuckled and turned back to Xion. "Just call me Xemnas. Everybody but my sons seems to."

"Ok."

Roxas chose this moment to plop down a massive stack of pancakes in the middle of the table.

"Food's ready."

He pulled out three glasses, filled one with orange juice, and the other with milk. He looked back at Xion. "What'd 'you want to drink?

"Milk, please." Roxas smirked, poured her some milk, and brought all three cups to the table.

"See? Yet another person who has milk with their pancakes."

Xemnas rolled his eyes. "And yet, no one else in this house does."

"Axel and Larxene do."

"Uncle Xigbar prefers orange juice."

And so it went. The stack of pancakes in the middle of the table started shrinking rapidly. Whereas Xion only had two, like a normal person, Roxas downed eight, and Xemnas ate five, himself. At about the time Roxas was starting on his sixth, Sora and Kairi came stumbling down the stairs. Sora saw the depleted stack of pancakes in the middle of the table and glowered at Roxas. "You could have at least waited."

Xion stepped in for him. "We could have… but we were hungry. Besides, we left you plenty." It was true. There were still a dozen pancakes left.

Xion was amazed at the stomachs of the Hikari family. Kairi, like her, had only eaten two. Roxas stopped eating at his sixth pancake. Xemnas remained at 5 pancakes, and Sora killed 9 by himself. How were these people so skinny…?

Xemnas stood up, stretched, and then looked around at all of them. "I don't mean to kick you out of the house, but I need it empty. There's going to be a business meeting here in a couple of hours, and I don't need you guys getting in the way."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "In other words, you're kicking us out."

"Well… yeah."

And so, they grabbed their stuff and got out. Before they had taken more than a couple of steps out of the house, Roxas turned on heel and stopped Sora in his tracks. He held out his hand. "Keys."

"Why should I give them to you?"

"Because I'm not dealing with another traffic problem like last night."

Sora chuckled. "Alright, that WAS horrible. But that doesn't mean it'll happen again."

Roxas just stared. "Is this your fourth or fifth car?"

Xion raised an eyebrow. Sora just sighed, and handed him the keys.

* * *

S

Roxas drove them to "The Docks" (which did not at all resemble real docks, it was more of a boardwalk), their usual hangout spot. It wasn't just THEIR hangout spot, obviously. It was popular for anybody from that area of Vegas. Sora desperately hoped that they wouldn't see HIM there. Roxas was borderline normal for once, and Sora didn't want to kill that. Roxas promptly grabbed his skateboard and skated his way over to the local skate park. Sora watched him skate disinterestedly for a while. Sora was a reasonable skater, but Roxas was a pro. Kairi was busy making small talk with Pence and Olette, who were in the area. Sora couldn't help but wonder where Hayner was. Xion's attention was all but glued to Roxas. Sora couldn't blame her, as Roxas was by far the most interesting thing in the area, with killer moves he was busting on the board. Eventually, though, even Roxas got tired. He pulled out of the bowl that he had been skating in, and did that revert-pop-shuvit that he liked so much to dismount. He hadn't busted a sweat, but he was breathing pretty heavily.

He walked over to Sora. "Ice cream?"

"Only if you're paying." Roxas rolled his eyes.

"That was already a given."

Sora tried, and failed, to disengage Kairi from her conversation with Olette. Roxas simply glowered at her, and she muttered a hasty apology and stalked over to him. "What!"

"You're making me wait for my ice cream."

Sora resisted the urge to chuckle. That was such a childish thing to say.

Roxas, as he promised, paid for all their ice cream, which was a very interesting sea-salt flavor that they all loved.

As Roxas finished his, a hand hit his back.

"What, you didn't get one for me?"

It was Seifer. Two years ago, Roxas and Seifer would have been beating on each other, but now they were best friends. Seifer refused to side with HIM after… the incident, and so started to hang with Roxas and the rest of them. From what Sora could tell, Roxas and Seifer were close to what could be called "perfect" friends. Seifer was the half that had the initiative, and Roxas was the one who tempered it with caution. Of course, Seifer was also nice to have around because he was strong enough to pull Roxas off of people when he snapped. Suddenly, Sora saw a signature head of silver hair. He started to shoo them away, but it was in vain. He had already seen them, and was on his way over there, with his posse in tow. Roxas saw them. When they got within five feet of each other, they both drew their pistols, locked arms, and shoved the guns against each other's throats.

* * *

X

Xion was shocked. She had gathered that they disliked each other, but she had underestimated their hatred for each other.

Roxas had a murderous look on his face. "Come on, give me a reason to blow your fucking head off."

The silver-haired kid just smirked. A blonde kid that had been hovering behind him gave Sora and Seifer a look. They all nodded and set themselves to prying the two apart. The blonde couldn't pull the silver-haired away by himself so another kid, black-haired, came over to help. Meanwhile, Seifer very easily pulled Roxas away. Not to say that Roxas wasn't struggling, just that Seifer was that strong.

Roxas was still trying to line up a good shot. "C'mon man, just one bullet in his head! That's all I ask!"

Seifer pinned him against the wall while the silvette's posse made their strategic retreat. "Look, dumbshit, you kill, him and his friends kill you. Or you go to prison for the rest of your life. SO CALM YOUR SORRY ASS DOWN!"

Roxas glared at him. Seifer glared back. "You don't scare me, chickenwuss."

Seifer's phone went off. He sighed in disgust upon reading the text. "The dumbshits at work need me… I gotta split." He looked at Sora. "Make sure he doesn't get his sorry ass killed."

Sora nodded.

Roxas had cooled off by now. Xion turned to him and gasped. He was smoking… 'Is that what I think that is?' A closer look confirmed her fears. She slapped it out of his hand. Sora and Kairi looked dumbfounded. Roxas, of course, was furious. As he reached down to pick it up, she smashed it into the dirt. She was rather afraid of the consequences, but she knew she was right; he didn't need to be smoking those.

He slowly stood back up. "Do you have any idea how much those cost?"

"No. And I don't care. You don't need to be smoking those."

"And why not?" He had already lit another one, and was glaring at her.

She stood her ground. "They're a crutch. I don't know what your problem is, but you shouldn't fall back onto drugs."

Roxas took in a long drag, and then blew the smoke out back onto her deliberately. "Choose your battles better. You're not gonna win this one. "

* * *

S

Sora wasn't surprised. Nobody that knew Roxas had succeeded in getting him off of weed. Even Seifer, who smoked the stuff himself, had tried, and failed to get Roxas to quit. He'd picked the habit up after… the incident, and had no trouble getting his hands on the stuff, as it was all over their school.

Roxas's phone went off. He answered the call. "Over? Ok."

He stowed his phone in his pocket and put out the blunt that he was smoking. "Sora, we gotta go."

"Cool." He gave a casual salute to Kairi and Xion.

"Sorry, but we gotta ditch. See ya!"

Upon getting home Sora noticed that his father was on the phone. He caught a few words. "I know you have other things in your life to deal with, but we need the whole family here." Sora was confused. What was up? "Really? Excellent. Two weeks will be plenty of time." He hung up.

Roxas, who had also been listening, was the first to voice the question. "Dad, who was that?"

"Your brother. He's coming down here in two weeks."

"Why?"

Xemnas sighed. "Boys… the Grove is here. In Vegas."

**Yes! One of three update chapters is typed and done with!**

**Read and Review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Starting on typing chapter 3! **

**I had all this written by the 8****th****, and typed it up on the 18****th****, but my data limit just reset recently, which is why you have a three-chapter update. I hope they're up to snuff, after a month of absence.**

**I own nothing.**

Criminal Heart

Chapter 3

* * *

C

He hoped he wasn't there too late in the night. He'd always had rotten timing, but thought that 1:00 in the morning was his worst yet. Still, he rang the doorbell. To his surprise, a very irate Kairi opened the door.

"The hell is—"She paused, seeing him clearly. "Cloud?"

"That's me. You gonna move out of my way, or am I gonna have to move you myself?"

Suddenly Kairi was pushed to one side. "Move it."

Roxas stood in the doorway. "Sorry. Forgot to never let Kairi answer the door."

Cloud raised an eyebrow, making a silent implication. Roxas rolled his eyes. "Do I look that stupid, Cloud?"

"Well, four years ago—"

"We broke up a couple of months after you left. You've missed a lot since you were home last."

Cloud shrugged, but got the message. "So are you gonna let me in, or am I gonna have to move through you?"

Roxas moved aside. "Your room is still how you left it, so I'm assuming that's where you're staying."

Cloud headed up the stairs and crashed into the familiar bed. As glad has he had been to separate himself from the family business, there was no way he was gonna let his family face the Grove without his help.

He crashed…

When he woke up, Cloud could smell pancakes. Grumbling hungrily, he drug himself downstairs to find Kairi and Sora collapsed in the living room's two recliners, and Roxas cooking in the kitchen. Cloud plopped down at the table. "Since when do you cook?"

"You really want Sora near a stove? And you know that Dad can't cook."

"Can't cook?" Xemnas walked in. "I can handle the grill much better than you."

"That's grilling, not cooking." Cloud had taken his brother's side.

As Roxas set down a massive stack of pancakes, Xemnas said, "It's all the same."

Cloud raised an eyebrow at the massive stack of pancakes. "Expecting company?"

Roxas shook his head. "Between me, Sora, and Dad, we could take this down without problems."

Cloud rolled his eyes and grabbed three pancakes off the top of the stack. He'd forgotten how much food his family could eat.

While he ate, he got his first good look at Roxas in four years. His face was hard, way too hard for someone his age. He was well built now, opposed to the skinny kid that he had known four years ago. Even in his baggy PJ's, Roxas's arms and shoulders were very well defined. If he had to guess an age, he would have guessed 20 or 21, not the 17 that he knew Roxas to be.

His father had aged very well. You would never guess that he was in his early fifties, minus the hair color. Cloud honestly would have guessed that he was mid to late 30s, upon a passive observation.

Cloud heard a groan, and moments later Sora came stumbling into the kitchen, with Kairi close behind. Minus his height and the slight thickening of a few muscles, Sora had changed very little, if at all.

Kairi, on the other hand, had changed a lot. She was, no other word for it, _hot_. She had maintained a very charming, girlish look, while still filling out her curves nicely. Cloud felt uncomfortable thinking about it, as she was more like his little sister than anything else.

As Xemnas finished his fifth and final pancake, he turned to address all of them, minus Cloud.

"So what's this I hear about a party?"

Kairi's eyes lit up. "Yeah, it's tonight at the—"Sora clamped his hand over her mouth. Roxas, however, finished for her. "—Tops hotel and show area. And they," he shot a glare at Sora and Kairi, "want me to dj."

Cloud was puzzled. Roxas was usually just as excited about social events as Sora and Kairi. So why did he act like they were such a bother now?"

Xemnas seemed unconcerned. "No gambling. Don't come home completely drunk. And—"he looked at Roxas, "you really should dj."

Roxas groaned. "All right, all right… I'll do it."

* * *

X

"But I don't wanna go!" She didn't care if she sounded like a little kid. It was the truth.

Kairi jabbed a finger in her face. "Look, if we managed to get Roxas's sorry ass to go, I'm sure as hell getting you there, too."

"But I don't have any dress clothes!"

Kairi waved this comment off. "Wrong kind of party. Wear semi-casual."

Xion blinked. That was easy—most of the clothes that she wore to school would qualify. "Heels?"

Kairi shook her head emphatically. "Hell no. You'll break an ankle."

Xion grinned. "Ok."

Ignoring the sounds of panic coming from Kairi's room, Xion picked out her clothes rather easily. She was wearing an ocean blue, short sleeve button-up, black jeans, black socks, and a nice pair of black flats.

Xion then made the mistake of walking into Kairi's room. She saw two outfits lain out on Kairi's bed, with other clothes strewn around the room. Kairi herself appeared to be on the verge of pulling out her hair. She turned to Xion. "Which one!"

Xion examined both of them carefully, and then chose the more casual of the two for Kairi.

It was a tight fitting, sleeveless white shirt (but not a tank), a sky blue miniskirt, dark blue leggings, and white shoes with blue laces.

Kairi was still twitchy about her outfit as they were getting in the car. "Is it good enough? I should really—"

Xion cut her off. "You look fine, Kai. Come on, if you don't hurry up, we'll be late."

"But—"

"Come ON!"

Kairi hesitated, then got in the car.

"Let's go!" Xion zoomed out of the driveway. She did NOT want to fight for parking.

* * *

Upon their arrival, it was easy to see why the party was at the Tops. It was classy, but causal enough for a bunch of teens. There were no lists or lines, but she noticed that the place was packed. Moments after they walked in, Sora materialized out of nowhere.

"Good to see you." Sora was wearing a very casual black jacket, a blue-and-white vertically striped collared shirt, a pair of black capris (why?), and his usual bright yellow tennis shoes.

Kairi was looking around. "Roxas already at the controls?"

Sora smirked and nodded. "Yeah. He's not happy about it, though."

Xion was confused. "At the controls…?"

Kairi jumped. "Oh, I forgot to tell you… we "convinced" Roxas to dj for a bit, before the guy that got hired for the party takes over."

"Roxas can dj?"

Sora made the "kinda" motion with his hand. "We say that he's dj'ing, but in reality, he's just behind a killer synthesizer. And he's an artist in electronica."

As he spoke, some house music started playing, Deadmau5 by the sound of it.

"And he's started in usual fashion. Works every time."

"Gets boring sometimes, doesn't it?" All three of them jumped. They turned around to see a tall man with amazingly red hair that appeared to flicker like flames whenever he moved.

"Wassup gu—wait, do I know you?" He was looking at Xion.

"No…" She was rather put off by his exceedingly buoyant nature. He stuck out his hand. "Name's Axel, nice to meetcha!"

Xion hesitated, and then shook his hand.

Axel turned back to Kairi. "So as I was saying, it gets old eventually." He paused for a second to listen to the music. Somehow, Roxas had smoothly transitioned from house into dubstep. "And now that he's playing dubstep, he'll probably play this and one more, then fall into some trance before he calls it bails out and lets someone else take over. Lazy bum."

"I think Sora takes the cake for laziness." Kairi and Sora's heads whipped around. Hovering near the group was another girl. She was skinny, but not horribly so, and had an air of daintiness and delicacy. She looked rather hesitant to involve herself with the group. Regardless of her impressions, though, from the look on Kairi's face, she couldn't be good news.

Before Kairi could bite her head off, though, Axel barged in. "What do you want, Namine?"

* * *

K

Kairi was beyond mad. She was beyond furious. No, she was FUCKING PISSED! The hell does this girl think she is, trying to come be friends with them after what she did.

"I just wanted to hang…"

"GET THE—mmph!" Kairi had started shouting, but Sora had covered her mouth. "Don't make a scene."

Kairi would have spit back an angry retort, but Sora still had his hand clamped firmly over her mouth.

Namine seemed rather put off by Kairi's behavior. "I mean, if I'm not welcome here…"

Sora spoke as a voice of reason. "We appreciate the attempt, but all you'll do right now is fuck things up even more." He wasn't mean, he was simply very short. Apparently he had not completely forgiven her either.

Kairi suddenly saw a familiar head of blonde spikes making its way towards them. Axel saw it too, because she heard him mutter, "Uh-oh. The shit's about to hit the fan…"under his breath.

And hit the fan, the shit did. Before he saw Namine, Roxas looked very cheerful and alive, the most "normal" he had been in months. The moment he saw her, though, the light left his eyes, the slight smirk left his face, his shoulders sagged down, and his hands flew to his pockets.

"The hell're _you_ doing here?" His glare was much less menacing than Kairi's, but seemed to hit Namine the hardest. She seemed on the verge of tears. "Well, I guess I'll—"

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

Riku. Fucking excellent. Just what we FUCKING needed. Sora's hand was, unfortunately, still firmly clamped over her mouth, because Kairi was rapidly thinking up expletives to throw at Riku. She snuck a glance at Xion, and saw her glancing back and forth between everybody involved, in confusion.

"Did I just watch these losers REJECT you, Nams?" He gestured toward his own posse. "Why don't you hang with us, instead?"

Namine glared at him, but with her watery eyes, it wasn't very menacing. "Fuck off, asshole."

Riku didn't seem put off by this at all. "Ooh, feisty… I like it."

Kairi had seen enough. She threw Sora off of her and blasted Riku across the face. "Didn't you hear her! FUCK! OFF!"

Riku glared at her. "You think you scare me, bitch?" He slapped her across the face.

Before Kairi could do anything but register what had happened, she heard another familiar voice. "Oh, no, you didn't!" Cloud popped up out of nowhere, blasted Riku across the face (again) picked him up, and pinned him to the nearest wall. "Like hell did you just do that." He threw him to the floor.

Riku got up in a hurry. "You got a problem?"

Cloud was very obviously pissed. "Yeah. I got a problem with you dissing my brothers and my friends."

Riku laughed. "And to think that I didn't recognize you, Cloud. You think I'm scared of an ex-member? REALLY?"

Riku threw a punch in Cloud's face. Cloud took it without flinching, then hit Riku in the stomach, sending him to the floor. "Wanna know something, asshole? The worst ceremony… is the one for the quitters."

Riku got up, looked at his dire situation, and fled the scene.

Roxas appeared to have a massive headache. "I gotta bail guys… I'll come back later…" Roxas rapidly walked towards the exit. Axel glanced back at everybody, then took off after him.

After a couple of minutes, Xion found her voice. "Alright, what the HELL was that about?

Cloud nodded. "I'd like to know that too."

Namine looked dumbfounded. "You haven't told them?" Kairi and Sora both stared at the ground. "Fine. I'll explain."

* * *

N

This was a very touchy subject for Namine, too. She had been very tearful and emotional over the past year or so because of the same events that made Roxas withdraw into his shell.

"I suppose I should start at the beginning…"she looked around. "We should find somewhere to sit. It's a long story."

They plopped in a nice booth.

Namine chose to address Cloud. "Now I'm sure you remember, Cloud, that everybody that was involved in that scene was friends four years ago, except for Xion." Cloud nodded. Xion was listening intently. "Well, about midway through the first semester of 8th grade, Roxas and Riku got into it. I don't even remember what the argument was about, but they were both very passionate about it. So passionate that they got into a really, REALLY big fight about it. After that, they were always taking pot shots at each other in the halls, and Riku refused to hang with us after we all took Roxas's side." Xion had figured that they had always been enemies, with the way they acted towards each other, so this was news to her. "A couple of weeks later, Kairi and Roxas stopped dating. There was no coldness there, they just wanted more time to hang with the rest of us." She paused and looked at Kairi. "I got that much right, right?"

Kairi nodded. "I'll take it from here." She cleared her throat. " About a year after that, Namine and Roxas got together. And they were a lot more serious than we had been. Whereas we just got together because of a little bit of mutual attraction, I'm convinced that there was some serious love between the two." She sounded a little jealous. "They were really happy for about a year, then something fucked it up." She looked at Sora. "I think it would be best if you took it from here."

Sora nodded. "You're prolly right, seeing as I was there. So anyway, at the beginning of 10th grade, Roxas comes down to his locker at the end of school, expecting Namine to be waiting for him, as per the norm. I had beaten him down there, and was as shocked as him. Because Namine was there, kissing Riku RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS LOCKER. So Roxas, being the attached boyfriend that he was, assumed that this was just Namine's way of leaving him, and that she had set up that whole scene."

Kairi spoke up guiltily. "Judging by how you treated Riku, I'd say that we were wrong to think that."

Namine nodded. "Roxas isn't the only one who's been an emotional wreck this year."

Kairi and Sora looked up sheepishly. "Sorry for not listening to your half of the story…"

Namine smiled. "It's ok. And besides, I've still gotta get Roxas to hear me out…"

Kairi grinned back. "Don't worry. We'll get him to listen to you.

* * *

R

"Come on, man, get over it. Shit happens. Got it memorized?" Roxas hated that catchphrase, but didn't have enough GAS (A.N. Give A Shit) to nark him for it. "I bet that Riku was the one who set it up, you know, to get at you."

Roxas grunted. "It wouldn't surprise me."

In the distance, Roxas saw five or six men walking towards the Tops, with a swagger to their steps. Then he noticed something about them. Something BAD.

He jumped to his feet. "Ah, shit." He glanced at Axel. "We gotta beat those guys to the party." Axel saw them, and jumped up.

"That little pussy-ass-faggot-nigger!" (A.N. yes, I'm white. I got called this once on PSN, while I was playing Zombies and trolling. So no, I'm not racist. Nor am I a homophobe.)

They ran all the way back to the Tops.

"The hell are they?"

Axel pointed to a distant table. "Over there." They didn't run, but they did get there in a hurry.

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "What's the rush?"

Axel beat Roxas to it. "The rush is that Mr. I'm-a-badass called in for fucking backup."

Cloud shrugged nonchalantly. "How many?"

Roxas was the one who spoke this time. "Six. And they were all sporting yellow."

Cloud's eyes narrowed. "You've got your Deagle, right?"

Roxas nodded. "Yeah, and I know you've got your revolver. But the two of us probably aren't going to be enough to take on six people."

Axel rolled his eyes. "You really think I'm unarmed, Rox?"

"That's still only three to six. That means—'

Axel shushed him. "They're here."

Shots were heard. A general panic was immediate.

"Ah, shit. Just what we needed." Whereas Roxas, Cloud, and Axel had pistols, all of the shots that they had heard came from micro machine guns.

Roxas started giving out instructions. "Axel, stay here with Sora and the others." He nodded. Roxas turned to Cloud. "You with me?"

Cloud nodded. "Ready to go."

"Good."

The gunmen were obviously lacking major training and experience, as their sweep pattern was very erratic. The Tops was almost completely cleared out by this point. Thankfully, there were no civilian corpses, but Roxas wasn't sure whether this was a factor of the mercy of the gunmen, or simply terrible aim.

Roxas and Cloud snuck behind a bar where two of the men were leaning. Roxas looked at Cloud, then gestured up at two men that were oblivious to their presence. Cloud nodded. Roxas pulled one of the men over the bar in a chokehold and shot him with his Deagle. At the same time, Cloud pulled out his combat knife and stabbed the man in the throat as he pulled him over the bar. They pulled the men's weapons off of their bodies and set off after the other four, who had just been alerted to their presence by Roxas's shot.

They had been searching in groups of two, and as such, it was easy for Cloud to take out the second, very amateur group out with minimal effort, as he simply lined them up and mowed them down.

The final pair had evaded their clutches. Or so they thought. One of them jumped Roxas from behind and put him in a one-armed chokehold. Cloud spotted the other one, and engaged him in hand-to-hand combat. Neither of the haphazard punches that the man threw connected. Cloud countered with a punch to the gut and a kick to the face, for a K.O.

All that time, Roxas had been struggling to break the man's chokehold by force. Seeing that he would fail, Roxas resorted to plan B; he smoothly pulled his Deagle, pressed it to the man's head, and pulled the trigger. It had the desired effect of freeing him, minus the blood all over his clothes.

Cloud spit on the corpse. "Fucking Beaters."

Cloud was about to pull the trigger on the man that he knocked out when Roxas stopped him.

"No unnecessary killing."

"It is necessary. He saw us. He can give the police a description of us. And we DON'T need problems with the law. Besides—"he gave Roxas a look, "—compassion has no place in our family business."

Roxas glared at him. "I know. That's why you left."

Axel and the rest came rushing in. "Are you ok? We heard gunfire, and…" he trailed off, seeing the two dead bodies near the bar, and the four around Roxas and Cloud, and all of the blood on Roxas's clothes. "Y'all are cool, right?"

Cloud shot the unconscious man in the head. "Yeah. We're cool. But we need to roll out before the police show up."

Roxas walked Kairi and Xion to their car, and Sora, attempting to avoid any unnecessary awkwardness between the two, walked Namine back to hers. Kairi and Xion's tires had been slashed though, and a big R had been keyed into the driver's side door. Roxas looked at them. "Are you guys opposed to staying with us for the night?" They shook their heads. Roxas nodded. "Cool." He called Sora.

"Yo, wassup Roxas?"

"Riku slashed their tires. They're gonna stay with us for the night. You cool with that?"

"Yeah man. Namine's gone, so I'll meet you at the car."

Roxas massaged his temples. It had been one hellishly long night.

**YES! After an hour and a half of typing, my longest chapter ever has been completed! I've still got one left to type up, and I'm gonna get it done, even though I'm SICK and TIRED of typing.**

**Read and Review, please! Don't flame me!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Last chapter in my three-chapter update! This one was only 4 ½ handwritten pages, as opposed to the 11 of the previous chapter. I didn't intend for it to be short, but it does finish up some explanations that are rather overdue. **

**I own nothing. (Except the plot. No stealing.)**

Criminal Heart

Chapter 4

* * *

R

Roxas woke up because of his phone's incessant buzzing. He had opted to sleep on the couch again, simply refusing to make Xion sleep there when there was a nice, warm bed that she could use.

Checking said pone, Roxas saw 15 messages, all from—Namine?

He read through them.

"Hey."

"You awake yet?"

"I know you hate me, but can you reply for once?"

"Come on Rox."

"You're ignoring me aren't you?"

And so it went for eight more messages. The last two, though, attracted his interest.

"We really need to talk…"

"Please?" This shocked Roxas. Namine had always been nice and polite, but he'd only heard her use the word "please" once or twice. He could hear Axel's voice in his head even now, "If you don't text her back, I'm gonna strangle you, then take you to her and MAKE you talk." Giving in to his inner Axel, Roxas texted her back.

"What do you want?"

Her reply was rapid. "Can we talk?"

"We are…"

"You know what I mean." Unfortunately, he did.

Knowing that he would regret it, he pulled her up in his contacts and called her.

"Thanks, Roxas." She sounded relieved. He wasn't surprised, as he had ignored her before.

"What is it that you need to say that can't be expressed by text messages?"

"It's a long story. But before I start, I need you to promise that you'll listen to the whole thing."

"Why should I?"

"Because it's true. And very personal."

Roxas didn't want to, but he knew that there was no way out of it.

"Ok… I promise. Now start talking."

"Ok, it's about what happened a year ago. Now you remember…"

* * *

S

Sora woke up in his beanbag chair, opting to stay out of the living room, but still giving Kairi his bed. He checked his clock. Only 7:30? Damnit. He hated it when he woke up early on three-day weekends. He didn't understand how Roxas and Dad did it every day. Noticing that Kairi was still asleep, he tiptoed out of his room. He was normally very clumsy, but managed to make it out of his room quietly. Once he got downstairs, he came upon Roxas still sitting on the couch under his covers, staring dumbfoundedly at his phone.

Sora, realizing what had happened, attempted to back out of the room. Roxas, unfortunately, noticed him, and sent him a menacing glare.

"You knew."

Sora held up his hands in front of him. "No, I didn't. I only found out last night, after you and Axel bailed on us."

Roxas stared back down at his phone. "This complicates things."

Sora raised an eyebrow. "Really? I thought that…" He trailed off.

Roxas gave him an incredulous stare. "I know what you're thinking, so don't even vocalize it. No. It's not that simple. Maybe later… but for now, there's not going to be an "everybody's happy, we get back together" type thing." Roxas stood up. "I don't feel like cooking today. I think I'll have a bowl of cereal…"

Xemnas was already at the table, sipping his coffee. Kairi and Xion came drifting downstairs moments later. Sora and Roxas fixed four bowls of cereal and everybody sat down at the table.

After everybody finished, Kairi fixed Roxas with a killer stare. "So now that everybody's rested up, I'd like to know what the HELL last night was about."

Xion threw in her glare. "I'd like to know that, myself.

Xemnas gave both his sons incredulous looks. "They don't know?"

Sora and Roxas started speaking at the same time.

"We thought—"

"—it would be best—"

"—if they didn't know." Xemnas finished for them. "I disagree. You place them in greater danger by leaving them ignorant and unprepared than by giving them possibly harmful information.

Roxas and Sora both stared into their cereal bowls.

Xemnas sighed. "Fine. I'll tell them." He turned to the Uchidas. "Heard of the Keys?"

Xion shook her head, while Kairi nodded.

"Ah, I had forgotten that you are new around here Xion. The Keys are one of the most powerful gangs in Vegas; it is a gang of which Sora is a member, and to which Roxas is heir."

Kairi's jaw dropped. "So you mean you…" Xemnas nodded. She looked at Roxas. "And you…?"

Roxas nodded. "Yeah… if Dad were to die, I would take over."

Kairi, for the first time in a long time, was speechless.

Xion seized the opportunity. "That's why you were able to take those guys down yesterday, right?"

"Yeah."

Xemnas leaned forward. "Did I catch that right?"

Roxas leaned back in his chair. "Cloud and Riku had an… altercation yesterday. Riku got whipped, and called in some fellow Beaters for help… needless to say, we took care of it."

Xemnas nodded, but still looked concerned. "No Grove members?"

"No. I don't think Cloud and I could have taken down more than two Groves, and there were 6 Beaters."

"You need to be more careful. Our enemies are here now."

Kairi's mouth started functioning again. "What's the Grove?"

Xemnas stared at her. "Ask again, another time."

She stared at him determinedly, silently demanding an answer.

Sora could feel the tension building. Deciding that he would rather not be in the room when it broke, he extricated himself from the situation, grabbed the keys to his car, and left."

* * *

C

Cloud strode into the kitchen, just in time to see Kairi start shouting at Xemnas about his supposed "withholding of information." He gave Roxas a look, and they both picked her up and forced her into the living room.

She started shouting at Cloud, but he silenced her with a glare. "Cool off."

She glared back. "Why should I?"

Xion answered. When did she get in there? "'Cause you'll cause trouble if you don't."

She harrumphed at the trio.

Suddenly, Sora came sprinting in with a girl clad in yellow in his arms. He rushed up the stairs to his room, ignoring the glares that he got from Roxas and Cloud.

When he came back down, Cloud jumped on him. "Why the hell did you bring a Beater here?"

Sora glared back. "She's hurt! I couldn't just leave her!"

"I know that. You should have shot her and put her out of her misery, instead of bringing her here!"

Roxas cut them both off. "Neither of you realize how serious this truly is."

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"That was no random beater… that was a Matsumoto."

Cloud's eyes narrowed. "You sure?"

"I'd recognize that silver hair anywhere." He turned to Sora. "She's your problem."

"You mean…?"

Cloud nodded. "Neither of us are going to involve ourselves with this. You've brought a potential enemy into our home. You're on your own."

**Bwahaha! I hath done it! About time, too.**

**I hope the update was satisfactory.**

**Read and Review! No flames!**


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